Attitude

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22

A man was battling cancer when he ran into a minister friend in the store. The minister, whose wife was critically ill, spent time asking about his friends condition. Though his wife was critically ill, he still took time to let his friend know that he cared. Over a year later the two again met in the store. In the year the ministers wife had died. Again his concern was for his friend. He spent time asking about his condition and was happy to hear that he was doing well.

Does it ever seem to puzzle you how two different people can see the world so differently? What one person sees as a setback another sees as an opportunity. The difference is attitude. Our attitude in life makes all the difference in the world. Helen Keller, who was blind her whole life, said "Keep your face to the sun and you will not see the shadows." What a way to look at life. Corrie ten Boom, a holocaust survivor, suffered several strokes before she died. While she was bedridden friends from around the world came to visit her in her California retirement home. They all testified that, though they came to encourage her, they were the ones who left encouraged. You see, Corrie had learned the secret to a positive life long before; "Just keep your face to the Son and you won't feel the shadows."

I'm convinced that those people who take life as it comes enjoy it much more. There is always something to complain about in life. But there is always something to be thankful for as well. Some people are just born with sunny dispositions. They are the people magnets who always see the glass half full. Others have to work hard at being cheerful. We can, however, train ourselves to see the good. It make take a little practice but it is worth the effort. The more we speak positive things the better we feel. When we don't feel well it helps to find someone else who is having a struggle and do our best to encourage them. We can either have a pity part together or we can have a praise fest together.

It is much more fun to praise God for his blessings than to curse life for its troubles. Next time you are tempted to tell someone how bad you have it why not tell them how good you have it instead. If you haven't counted your blessings in a while it may be difficult at first. But the more you do it the easier it becomes. Just try it. Make someone's day. Speak life instead of death. What have you got to lose?

Thankfully,

Sullivan Jones
 

Common Sense

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

There is a much used phrase that I find to be a misnomer. The phrase? Common sense. Most people would define common sense as the sense that all of should have. I have even heard it referred to as God given common sense. But most of what we think of as common sense is actually learned behavior. It is what is common to us because we have experienced it before with one of the five senses, thus the phrase "common sense."  "Common sense" might be common among a certain group but that which is common to one lifestyle would be totally foreign to another.

Need an example? Most of us would say that it is common sense to figure out how to flush a toilet, use the elevator, or work a vending machine. These things are actually learned behavior to those of us who live in the modern world. I remember once having to show a native in Central America how to flush the toilet. He had always lived where the common facilities where an outhouse. When he did have a "flushable" toilet it usually required scooping water from a barrel beside the toilet and pouring it in to make it flush. The thought of a toilet that flushed itself was not common and so his "common sense" couldn't figure it out. Did this mean he was less intelligent? No, of course not. Most of us would be equally lost in his world.

Common sense has much to do with the way we perceive and understand faith. It is hard to get someone to accept something that goes against his logic or "common sense." Yet everything about faith defies logic. It defies logic to think that a man walked on water, healed the sick, and arose from the dead of his own accord. It doesn't make sense to think that the laying on of hands with anointing oil can heal the sick. I can't explain how sins are washed away through a prayer of repentance and baptism. I certainly can't explain how speaking in tongues works? Why? These things go way beyond my idea of what makes sense.

Common sense is made up of the things that we have experienced with our five senses. If I haven't experienced it before then it defies what is common to my senses. This usually results in me not believing in it. This kind of common sense definitely has its merit and can keep us from looking like fools. But when it comes to spiritually things my senses will never be enough. God sees all, knows all, and understands all. What is to God common sense (because he can see it) is quite foreign to me. When he asks me to do something that defies my logic, like simply trust him, I have to remember that he can see what I can't see. He knows what I can't know ahead of time. And there is nothing that he doesn't understand.

When my common sense isn't enough I can trust him. After all, HE IS.

Trusting in Jesus,

Sullivan Jones

The Lord is Coming

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8

I awoke this morning with the words to a song from my childhood going through my mind. I remember singing this hymn as a child and just knowing that Jesus could come at any moment.

What a beautiful day for the Lord to come again
What a beautiful day for him to take his children home
How I long to see his face, and to touch his nail scarred hands
What a beautiful day for the Lord to come again

The Apostles believed that Jesus would come in their day. They didn't understand that many of the things He taught them were for a future time period. When members of the first century greeted one another it was with this salutation, "The Lord cometh". The Apostle Paul so believed it that he signed  his letter to the Corinthians with the word Maranatha which means The Lord is Coming. Every generation since that time has preached that the Lord Jesus is coming soon. If we are not careful it would be easy to just dismiss it as a fairy tale. That is exactly what the enemy of our souls wants us to do. 

Paul warned us in Colosians not to be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit. Just because the coming of the Lord has not happened yet does not mean that it will not happen. We can open the scriptures and see that prophecy has been and is being fulfilled at an alarming rate before our very eyes. America and the world is on a collision course with the judgment of God. Yet most people, including many who call themselves Christians, scoff at such ideas. If they Lord were coming back he would have done so by now is the cry of the day. 

Our nation has forgotten that there is a reckoning day when all must give account to God for the things done in the body. It is evident in the laws being passed that ideas about God's word are considered old fashioned and out of date. I would like to join the Apostle Paul in reminding us that the Lord is coming. I can not predict when he will come. Jesus himself did not attempt to do that. It was for the Heavenly Father alone to know the day and hour. I would be a fool to even try. Yet He is coming.

I believe that we can look at the prophecies of scripture and know that he is coming soon. This world can not hold out much longer without answering to the judgment of God. The spirit of the anti-Christ has arisen in our world again in a way that the world has not seen since WWII. Surely we are in the countdown. 

Whether or not the end will be while I am alive on the earth I can not say. One thing I can say is that there will be an end. If I see it, wonderful. I am ready to be with Jesus. If I don't, my life will surely come to an end and then I will have to answer to him. Either way I heed the words of Paul, "Don't be deceived by philosophies and vain deceit." 

Man's philosophies of greatness and enlightenment might deceive many. They may believe that the Bible is just a collection of stories or that it is not literal. Yet I will not allow myself to be deceived by the spirit of the age. 

To all who will listen I sound and alarm. The Lord is coming. Are you ready? 

Watchfully,

Sullivan Jones